Rhiannon Johns' decorated UAB career will end on Wednesday at the NCAA championships (UAB photo)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Rhiannon Johns defied the norm of a
college athlete when she chose to redshirt last year in what would have
been her senior track season, but it all paid off.

As a junior in
2011, Johns qualified for the NCAA championships in the 5,000-meter run,
but sat out from competition last year to train for this year's
10,000-meter run.

She'll compete on Wednesday at 9:10 p.m. CT in
Eugene, Ore., in the finals after qualifying at the East Regional
Preliminary last week. The Sault, Ste. Marie, Canada, native was lightly
recruited when she came to UAB five years ago, mostly thanks to her
academic excellence.

She'll run her last race having already set the UAB outdoor records in the 5,000 and 10,000-meter runs.

Johns was driven to compete after not making her high school team as a freshman.

"From
the moment I got here, it was something that I wanted to do," Johns
said of qualifying for nationals. "At the same time, people on the
outside would have thought that was absolutely crazy. I always had the
goal. It may not have appeared to be a realistic goal, but it was always
something I was thinking about."

Johns, also a 3-time
all-conference academic award member, is pursuing a graduate degree now
in mathematics. She'll stay on as a graduate assistant at UAB next year
and represent Canada in the World University games this summer.

Johns
has also kept track of every single mile she's run since stepping foot
on campus. The tally is around 21,000 right now - the equivalent of going from coast to
coast in the United States 10 times.

She said extensive training
last fall and winter, running around 130 miles a week, prepared her for
this journey. That scaled back once the outdoor season started, and now
Johns runs around 15 miles a day.

"For a female athlete
especially, that is a lot," Johns said. "It was a bit of a risk, but you
don't know how much your body can handle. At the same time, to get a
reward, you have to take a bit of a risk."

Johns won't be the only
Blazer going to the track & field nationals. Elinor Kirk will
compete in the 5000-meter final on Friday, June 7, at 8:15 p.m. CT and
the 4x100 relay team of Angel Watson, Kyana White, Shakima Knox and
Alexis Bates will run in the semifinal at 6 p.m. CT on Wednesday. If the
Blazers advance there, the final is on Saturday, June 8, at 4:05 p.m.
CT.

Watch the video to hear more from Johns as she prepares for the national championships.